Tragedy, What is It?

Oedipus Rex's story begins as any other typical "hero saves the day" story. He gets chosen to be the savior of the city of Thebes once again, after being the fabled savior of it during the crisis with the Sphinx. The whole city of Thebes was wondering as to why they were suffering from a plague that was supposed to be prevented by answering the riddle of the Sphinx. Which Oedipus apparently did. This raises some questions to Oedipus' credibility and which starts the whole subject of the story: Who killed the old king Laius, and brought this curse upon the city of Thebes?

When Oedipus was the subject of questioning by everyone he calls for an old prophet that tells him that he was the one that killed his father, the old king Laius. Oedipus refused to believe the old man and deduced that Creon, his brother-in law, was the one that set this plan of blaming him into action. Creon refuses this claim and after another conversation with some old acquaintances of the queen, Jocasta. Oedipus finds out that it indeed was he who killed the old king Laius, married his mother, and set the curse upon the city. Upon the realization of this, Jocasta was found to have killed herself due to this fact. In reaction, Oedipus gauged out his eyes. Creon becomes the new king of Thebes, and Oedipus' overall fate was left unknown to the reader.

The whole Tragedy behind this whole story is that: no matter what would have happened Oedipus was always going to be the one that would kill his father, Laius, no matter what. Even though the people that were close to him, including his parents, decided to have him banished and eventually killed off in the fear of him killing his own father and sinking Thebes into a curse. But fate's hand played a very vital role in this tragedy so that Oedipus would end up killing his father anyway. Another example of tragedy within this is the fact that his daughter's, even though they had nothing to do with the events that have unfolded, are now subject to a life of ridicule and hurt.

This story relates to the definition of Tragedy that we've been looking at in class because of how throughout the majority of the story, Oedipus was trying to prove himself towards the towns people in order for him to secure his place as an important person in their society. This idea goes along with Miller's explanation of how: "the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing--his sense of personal dignity." This resonates with Oedipus' story towards the beginning a lot because of how while he was trying to get the crowd to tell him who they think the true killer of Laius was, he mentioned that even if it was him that did it, he would receive the same amount of punishment as any other person would.